Thousands are peacefully protesting ahead of Easter in Berlin, calling for halting arms supplies to Kiev and starting peace negotiations in Ukraine, an RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Saturday.
Easter marches are a practiced tradition in Germany, with this year's weekend peace demonstrations expected to be held in over 120 cities across the country.
The organizer of the Berlin march, Netzwerk Friedenskooperative (Peace Cooperation Network), estimated that up to 3,000 people took part in the march, which began at Berlin's central quarter of Wedding.
Several thousand people have gathered in Berlin for a peaceful march on the eve of the Easter, protesting against arms supplies to Zelensky regime and advocating peace talks. pic.twitter.com/qJAh1KS7H5
— Mats Nilsson (@mazzenilsson) April 8, 2023
The participants can be seen carrying flags depicting the dove of peace, as well as banners that read "US and NATO Get Out of Ukraine," "Diplomacy, Not Arms," "Against Pointless Sanctions, Cheap Energy Now," "Tanks Never Bring Peace," as well as other slogans against Europe's dependence on the United States.
A performer sang a pacifist song in Russian, Yiddish, and German; some called for peace negotiations in Ukraine from a mobile stage before the beginning of the procession. "Stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, it only escalates and prolongs the conflict," one of the speakers said, stressing that Russia's security interests should be respected given NATO's weaponization and its expansion.
π©πͺπ₯"Thousands of Germans take to streets of Berlin, banging drums of PEACE as they march against NATO military aid to Kiev regime, calling for talks to resolve Ukraine crisis.
— @DublinActivist #StandWithPalestine π΅πΈππ·πΊ (@dublinactivist) April 8, 2023
Latest polls show Kiev regime losing support of Germans, with more & more people wanting negotiations" pic.twitter.com/aJvbznjo0l
Pro-Ukrainian activists attempted to disrupt the Easter march but could not shut down the event.
In the march's announcement, the organizers call against delivering weapons to Ukraine, deploying nuclear weapons at the Ramstein air base, and Russian sanctions, which, as organizers say, backfired on Germany itself. They also urge the German authorities to facilitate peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, as well as to create Europe's security architecture "from Lisbon to Vladivostok."
They argued that the German authorities to facilitate peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, as well as build Europe's security architecture "from Lisbon to Vladivostok."
Earlier last month, Germans took to the streets of Berlin on Sunday to protest against ongoing military support to Ukraine, calling on their government to engage in dialogue with Russia to achieve peace.
The demonstrators held banners saying, "You don't defend freedom with war," "Peace now! Without weapons!”, and "Diplomats instead of grenades".
"They must negotiate diplomatically; they must negotiate honestly with compromises from both sides. That is the case if you want peace,” one protester said.
“You do not send weapons in this case to kill people. People are being killed any moment here - well, not here, but there, with the weapons that are being funded here. And I am ashamed of that."
More than 250,000 people signed a petition in February, calling on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to stop increasing arms supplies to Ukraine and initiate peace talks on the issue, data on the change.org petition website showed.
The petition titled "Manifest for Peace" was launched on the change.org portal by Sahra Wagenknecht, a German lawmaker from The Left Party, and prominent German feminist journalist Alice Schwarzer on Friday. "A quarter of a million supporters have already signed the Manifest for Peace. Pressure from our side can lead to results!" Wagenknecht wrote on Twitter.
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